Florida School Becomes First in U.S. to Have Armed Guards – Should More Schools Follow?

What’s the story?

• Just in time for the one-year anniversary of the deadly mass shooting in Parkland, a charter school in Palmetto, Florida, has become the first school in the country to have armed guards carrying long guns.
• Manatee School for the Arts has two combat veterans in body armor roaming the grounds, each carrying a 9-millimeter Glock handgun and a Kel-Tec semiautomatic rifle with a 17-inch barrel.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act

• Following the Parkland massacre, Florida passed legislation that requires state schools to have at least one “safe-school officer”.
• Because Manatee is a charter school, the board is allowed to choose the weapon.

What are both sides saying?

• Manatee Principal Bill Jones says he wants officials guarding the school to carry weapons that can immediately stop any potential intruder.

"You have to ask yourself the question, 'Why would I not equip my guardian with at least the equivalent armament and firepower that someone is very likely to walk in the door with?'"

• Errol Southers of the University of Southern California - a former California homeland security official who specializes in research on homegrown terrorism and school safety - told the Washington Post that Manatee’s move was usual.
• “I have to be honest, I have never conducted a [school] assessment where this level of deter and defend was necessary.”

Southers continued: “I teach in Israel, I teach in France, places where terrorism is an issue. I’ve not seen this anywhere, not in an academic and an educational environment.”

• Mo Canady, executive director for the National Association of School Resource Officers, told The Post that if officers carry guns, they should be law enforcement officials.
• “The guardian concept, the civilian in there, I get it, and I understand why they might go to that length, being in that part of the state, where they’ve had one of the most horrific shootings ever. It doesn’t surprise me,” said Canady.

“But it’s not necessarily what we would recommend. We would rather see sworn law enforcement officers, well trained, tactically sound, in those situations.”

What do you think?

Should schools employ armed guards? Would law-enforcement officers be a better choice? Do you support some other way to combat school violence? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / Juanmonino)